This past week we moved to our new home in Columbia, MO where I will be teaching at the University of Missouri School of Law after two years at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Exhausted from unpacking, I finally had the time to read through Tony Freyer'sAntitrust and Global Capitalism, 1930–2004. Freyer’s book covers the history of antitrust developments in the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan. It also discusses the history of international efforts to address antitrust concerns. Freyer is a preeminent legal historian who has covered a diverse range of issues including the life and jurisprudence of Justice Hugo Black, civil rights in the US south, and the history of US and UK antitrust. Antitrust and Global Capitalism is a continuation of Freyer’s research into the comparative historic development of antitrust and business regulation.

Effective antitrust is essential to prevent monopolies and cartels from dominating economies and undermining growth and development. Increased globalization increases the possibility for anti-competitive behavior across national borders. The past ten years has seen a golden age of cooperation and coordination across antitrust agencies in antitrust enforcement. Freyer’s work is a major contribution to the longstanding debate over the historic development of comparative antitrust systems and how they address issues of business regulation, economic development and cross-border conduct. His work uncovers new insights in particular on post-WWII Japan and German antitrust and builds upon some recent works in understanding the transformation of European and Japanese antitrust.